Ah good hope to bump into you. I think I was conflating separate convivial afternoons in the Bowlers’ bar. There was one occasion, which must have been this one; I remember Paul Nixon was in the bar with his gang:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/county-championship-division-two-2022-1310355/middlesex-vs-leicestershire-1297700/full-scorecard
Lots of journalists were in as well because the Stokes captaincy had been announced at Lords’ earlier in the day. Then there was the Saffer test you correctly mention. Happy days!

It will be interesting to see if sound-and-fury is more effective than gently flushing away your soul as Jonathan Agnew says he thinks it is brightening up a little to the east.

France Women did very well to win that tournament (T20 World Cup Euro Qual Div 2). It was a big shock that Germany, strong favourites for the title, couldn’t even manage the second qualification slot with Italy pipping them to it. Germany still had a chance in their final match – against France, who’d they had beaten six times out of six in previous meetings – but this time France were too strong. I watched that one live on ICC TV. It’s great they’re streaming these matches now but the commentary quite poor. And sadly we’re some way away from seeing the option of e.g. French-language commentary for the French team’s matches, even though that team’s base comes from native French speakers rather than ex-pats.

Sweden getting totally twonked by Jersey was a shame, but is the kind of thing that can happen in a T20 chase. I thought overall Sweden did well for a team that relies on home-grown players (even several of the ex-pats who take part in Swedish women’s cricket actually learned the game via the Swedish system) and who don’t have a big domestic club scene. In contrast, Denmark Women – who in the 1990s qualified for two ODI World Cups with a best finish of 7th in the1993 Women’s CWC and were consistently one of the top sides in Europe – didn’t even send a team to participate. In fact they’ve not taken part in any ICC or European tournaments since the 2000s, though they did play Sweden for two WT20Is last year (losing both). Viewed in that context, Sweden Women’s development has been pretty impressive.

Realistically Sweden and Turkey should probably have been in a Div 3 qualifier – Turkey were very clearly playing in a tournament a few steps above them, which must be discouraging and even raises player safety issues- along with some of the other active women’s teams like Austria and Romania. But I don’t think that would have spared Sweden their Jersey humiliation since Sweden would have had a good chance of winning at that level and making it into Div 2 by right. And the Jersey result wasn’t representative of their tournament. They did very well to reach 139/6 against Germany’s strong bowling attack, Signe Lundell top-scoring with 49, even though they ultimately lost by 7 wickets.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-women-s-t20-world-cup-europe-division-2-qlf-2023-1377992/germany-women-vs-sweden-women-11th-match-1378016/full-scorecard

Hold on a tick, Jeffy. It wasn’t a Middx v Leics county match two or a few years ago – it was the rain-soaked first day of the I’ll-fated Saffer Test last year. That’s why the thought of it having been four years ago did my head in!

Anyway, to answer your question, I hope to be hanging around at Lord’s Days Two and Three. Not available Day One & with guests Day Four.

Nothing boring about Rugby Fives, btw – I am trying to encourage the playing of that fine sport on the squash courts at Lord’s:

https://ianlouisharris.com/2022/02/28/revives-for-fives-an-afternoon-of-hard-ball-at-lords-28-february-2022/

I think it must have been this match, Jeffy – can it really have been four years ago?

https://ianlouisharris.com/2019/05/17/in-and-out-of-lords-for-four-days-middlesex-v-leicestershire-14-to-17-may-2019/

Classic thread that, Ged. Some much missed names, who I hope still lurk occasionally.

I do hope “Billy” (?) Maximo’s young umpiring career progresses, the commentary possibilities are marvellous even if nobody picks up on the obvious sponsorship value.

Also umpiring this series was ANOTHER Mr Maximo! With the same birthday!

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/lucas-maximo-1382061

I can only presume they are twin brothers which makes it even better. They seem to have been alternating umpire and reserve umpire duties with the very experienced West Indies umpire Jacqueline Williams standing in every match, presumably as part of some kind of training initiative.

Which begs the question, what’s the maximum number of Maximos who can umpire a cricket match maximum? Quite common for the 4 versus 6 distinction to go to the TV umpire on televised matches but will the Maximo family run out of siblings before that’s possible?

William Maximo, bless him, wasn’t even born when I started going to Edgbaston for a slice of every test match since the late 1999s. If this infeasingly young umpire was to be sponsored, might he be branded William “DLF” Maximo?

https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/how-much-is-a-dlf-maximum-worth/2010/03/14/

In some even less reported news, Brazil women have been utterly thrashing Argentina women in their WT20I series – back in the day, Argentina were a stalwart of ICC World Cup qualifying tournaments, but today the result is unsurprising given it’s professionals versus amateurs, a distinction which is even creeping into some of the lower regions of international cricket.

But the best thing to come out of that series is that there is now an international umpire called Mr Maximo.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/william-maximo-1382062